A preliminary community survey of selected dengue patient households in the Ragama MOH, Gampaha District

Abstract

Socio-economic aspects of the local population has been found to directly influence the emergence of dengue epidemics. Thus, a preliminary community survey was conducted among 30 randomly selected dengue positive patient households in the Ragama Medical Officer of Health (MOH) area, in Gampaha District to assess the socio-economic and demographic level of the patients. Study premises were selected randomly based on the MOH records during the year of 2015 and the selection of the premises was purposely limited to Narangodapaluwa Public Health Inspector area that has reported the highest number of dengue cases. An interviewer administrated questionnaire was used for the collection of socio-economic and demographic aspects of the patient households. Among the selected households; 40% (n=12) had at least more than 2 dengue positive patients among the occupants, while 42 dengue positive patients were interviewed in total. Age distribution of positive patients ranged from 1 - 70 years, while mean and mode represented 35 and 19 years, respectively. Relative distribution of male to female ratio remained as 1:1. Around 50% of the patients had an educational level higher than intermediate school education (O/L). Based on the indirect questions regarding the possible factors affecting the DF transmissions, it was noted that only participants 26 out of 42 (61.90%), have been infected with DF more than once in their life time regardless of living in the same study area since birth. Twenty-two patients (52.38%) claimed that they believe, that the DF infection has acquired at home. Meanwhile others claimed (n=20, 47.68%) that possible DF infection acquired site could be outside environments, probably schools or the place of work. Cleanliness of the surroundings was maintained well at almost all households, while waste disposal was properly maintained at weekly intervals by urban council in 14 premises. Others practiced open ground burning twice a week. Most of the respondents were willing to support Aedes control measures and follow mosquito bite prevention methods (n=28, 93.33%). Majority of the households (n=21) were not satisfied with the government vector controlling activates within the area. There is no significant association between socio demographic and economic data with DF transmission within the study population. Relative abundance of Aedes mosquito population in existing rubber plantation could be a reason for the occurrence of high rate of DF cases. Thus, practice of effective integrated vector control measures within the study area is highly recommended for the controlling of dengue.